Fern's Wasteland Adventures
by NeOAH
Summary: Every since she was a little girl, Fernanda Hannaford always wanted to see the rest of Mojave Wasteland. Her early life might have not been the way she would have wanted it. To make things worse, her hometown, Primm, has been taken over by bandits. She must gather as much help as she can to take back the city.
1. Chapter 1- Rough Beginnings

Fernanda Hannaford always wondered what the wasteland was like outside of Primm. Every time she traveled to Goodsprings to fetch water for the town with her father, she always saw that big tower in the horizon. That tower was like a beacon of adventure to her. Whenever her parents let her inside, she always heard stories from the gamblers in the casino of Primm, stories of scary monsters, a giant dinosaur, and a community of mutated people who could level a house with their fists. She was skeptical these things, at first, except for the mutated creatures which she had encountered before while fetching water with her father, simultaneously learning about geckos, and how to use a gun. She liked adventure, but she was constantly held back by her parents. Her father's friend even made her learn to decrypt files for his courier service that he ran, files that were encrypted to ensure it couldn't be read, if it was stolen.

the NCR had came to Primm to search for recruits. They drafted a firing squad of men, including Fernanda's father. The sheriff couldn't do anything about it because he signed a contract a couple years back that made Primm apart of the NCR, mainly for protection. Her father promised to write to her as much as possible. A couple years had past before she heard anything from him, one day while she was working for Mr. Nash, she decrypted a long, advance, complex line of code that wasn't that hard for her. When she was done, an audio file began to play, it was from her dad. From the way he was talking, it was a simple "I'm doing fine and what not" kind of message, but to Fernanda, it was the most precious thing to her in the world. He said that he wanted the message to be special. He explained on it that it might be a while before she actually got the disk. Her pip-boy, that she got when she was a kid, could download it and play it back, and she did that whenever she wanted to hear his voice.

When she turned sixteen, she had fell in love with a traveler that lived in Goodsprings for awhile. She had grown attached to him, but she never knew how vicious geckos were as she was popping their heads off to save him one day. Some of the townspeople said he went for a stroll, others said he was leaving, although you couldn't be sure it was him anyway, he wasn't even recognizable after the geckos ran off. It was the first time Fernanda ever saw someone die. Heartbroken, scarred for life, and mad as hell, she went on a rampage to go beat a couple of geckos to death with just a shovel. Someone had to pull her off from beating one of them, whose head was pulverized into the ground, and clearly dead. She returned home only to fall into a deep depression for four days. On the fourth day her mother sat at the foot of her bed, where Fernanda had been dwelling, and gave her advice on how to handle it, she said, "You shouldn't fall in love someone in this world, especially in the wastes, it ends up with either one of you dying and the other do something crazy stupid, possibly getting killed in the process. Find something that makes you happy, stick with it, be good and be good at it." That was the last thing she heard from her mother other than a "I love you" before she was taken from her the next day by these men that carried a flag with a bull on it. They said they would not come back unless a woman was given to them. Fernanda's mother volunteered to do so. Then and there, Fernanda realized she was alone.

A year after Fernanda's mother was taken from her, on her birthday, she was about to leave Primm for a water run. She was sitting in the Nash Residence with Mr. Nash, talking to him about the going-ons of the day and working on a strange robot on the counter. When suddenly, they heard gunfire in the distance, at first Mr. Nash thought it was just NCR troops at the firing range in the camp posted up next to the town. That was until he raised the blinds to the windows. "Raiders," he said to himself, "Fernanda! Grab your gun, and get the hell outta here." Fernanda, confused and frighten, quickly ran out the door. Not knowing where to go, she ran the only way she knew, to Goodsprings.

It was a little after sunset and she had been running for about half of a hour, and then she finally saw the little town. While running along the bottom of the ridges, she tripped over a lump of dirt protruding out of ground, either out of fear, curiosity, or both, she looked back. It was a grave, a poorly made one with a plank that said, "Here lies the bastard Joe Cobb." She undermined it and continued to Goodsprings with a bit more caution of graves for the next five minutes. When she approached the saloon, she saw Easy Pete sitting on the rocking chair like he normally was. As Fernanda went to open the door, it opened by itself, she heard, "Bye Trudy! Live long and prosper!" and then a familiar face walked out, in his eyes he saw a little figure out of breath, with his quick natural wit he said, "Cat got your tongue? Hey Trudy, I think you got a customer!" and then he signaled her to step in as he stepped out.

When Fernanda stepped in, it was like a military hospital, people were healing from gunshot wounds on make shift cots and what not. Then she heard a voice from the bar, "Howdy Fernanda, what can I do for ya?", it was Trudy, the owner. "What's wrong, pumpkin?" she saw that Fernanda was looking worried. Fernanda explained about how Primm was being attacked by raiders and how it needs help. Trudy gave a drink on the house as she talked, and gave her a sympathetic look, but also looked a bearer of bad news. Trudy replied, "Sorry to say sugar, but just take a look around you. We just got done facing off some Powder Gangers, and most of the few of us are still recovering." Fernanda looked down in disappointment. "Oh no," a voice came from the other side of the bar, it was Sunny Smiles. "Trudy, the courier." Trudy slapped herself on the forehead and said, "You're right! The courier!" "What courier?" Fernanda said cluelessly. "The guy that just walked out," replied Sunny, "Trudy, we have to stop him." "I know, I know. Alrighty kid, I know you just got running a marathon, but that courier is your guy and is heading to Primm. It may have taken most of us, but that courier did most of the work fending off those Powder Gangers." Fernanda quickly shotgunned the Nuka-Cola Trudy gave her, and ran out the door. "Be safe!" Trudy said as she did so.

Fernanda ran for a couple of minutes, and then finally found the tall figure along the boulders south of Goodsprings, and shouted "Hey you!" He quickly turned around a corner, Fernanda thought she caught up with him. She did, but had a gun cocked to the back of her head, she froze and heard, "And you are?" she turned around. The courier said yet again "Cat got your tongue, who are you?" Fernanda quickly replied, " Please don't shoot, I came to stop you." He angrily said, "Yeah, you and a whole slew of people, the last guy who tried to stop me put a bullet in my head. Now, tell why I shouldn't put one in yours?" Fernanda said while looking at the barrel of his .357 magnum, "Trudy sent me, she said you could help." The courier expression changed quickly, "Trudy sent you?" As he said holstering his gun, "Sorry for offering a bullet to your head, I thought you were trying to kill me. What's wrong kid? Someone steal your sweet roll?" "More like my town," she replied. "Oh, so you're the mayor?" said the courier. "No, smart ass," she muttered, "The town you were heading to, it has been taken over by raiders, I need your help, please." "Ok," replied the courier. "Seriously, just like that?" she said surprised. "Well I need to know where the guy who put me in the grave is, and Trudy told me to go to Primm to start searching." "What happened to you?" Fernanda asked. "I honestly don't remember anything up to a couple nights ago, I don't even know where I came from, or my name." He explained. "I maybe able to help you with your problem." Fernanda proposed. "How's that kid?" The courier replied. "I work for the Mojave Express, does that ring a bell?" she asked. "I have a delivery order from there! I believe we can help each other, err...what was your name again?" He asked her "Fern-," she was interrupted by the courier's hand over her mouth. "Shhh," he pulled her under the boulder where he was hiding from before. "What is it?" She asked quietly. "geckos," He said, "Stay here, I'll take care of them."

There were three of the vile creatures, two began to fight over rusty tin can, while the other was searching a good twenty-feet away from the others. The courier emerged from the little overhang from the giant boulder, as he pulled out his double-barrel shotgun and machete, Fernanda slowly covered her ears. He crept up behind the lone gecko, and made a considerable large hole in its head. The others were immediately alerted and began to charge him, the first one took the handle of his machete to the face. The second gecko almost bit the courier, but instead was stopped by a blade in its mouth, and had its neck blown off. The courier then preceded to lob off the head of the recovering gecko with one swift slash. This fight lasted a mere twelve seconds from the first gun shot, while Fernanda was watching, she was astonished, happy, and a little bit aroused, about how fast the courier took them out. Then her mother's last words to her played through her head again, that she shouldn't fall in love with someone. The courier gave a little *phew* after he was done and said, "I think it would be a good idea to saw this barrel off, don't you think that would be nice? I think that would be nice."

After Fernanda came out from the overhang, the courier agreed to help out her town. "You haven't told me your name yet kid." He implied. "It's Fern-," she hesitated and thought about her mother's words, "Fern. Fern Hannaford." She said with unease. "Fern? That sure is an odd for a boy." Said the courier. Fernanda looked rather ambiguous, with her gender appeal not being apparent. She was commonly mistaken for a boy, for her short dark hair. She knew he would do this, so she used it to her advantage to hide the fact that was she was a girl. "Well Fern Hannaford, let's go save 'your' town." Said the courier as he began to travel southbound towards Primm. Fernanda hesitated, to take a good look at the courier, seeing him as not only as a friend, but an opportunity as well. Then the courier stopped to look back and saw Fern just standing there, and said, "You coming ?" Then she realized what she was doing, and started running towards him. Then they began to walk to Primm, with the moon beginning to loom in the western sky.


	2. Chapter 2 - Homecoming

As the two newly found partners headed toward the bandits' new base of operations, Primm, the courier suggested that they went along the ridges, since he thought he saw a good, safe overlook of the town. To get to the overlook, however, they either, had to backtrack fifteen minutes to find steady way up the ridges, or could take on a relatively steep hill right then.

The courier had a height of a little bit over six feet, slim weight, and a lean physique, so the hill wouldn't be much of a challenge. Fern, on the other hand, the hill would be a challenge to her. Having a short height of around five feet, and had a little bit of muscle from carrying water to Primm, but if you were to touch her bicep while she was flexing as hard as she could, you would say she's a little bit of a marshmallow. Then you would be rewarded a sucker punch to the stomach, personally given by Fern herself.

The courier was up first, and with ease he did, he said to Fern "The trick is to just grab the shrub at the top of the hill that I used." "I'll try my best." She said with a "you've gotta kidding me" attitude. As she began upward the hill, she thought to herself that it wasn't that hard, until she got near the end. Her foot had stepped on a loose rock, and she began to slip. Her hand missed the shrub by a few mere inches, and she immediately had put her head down from discouragement, but with her arm still extended out, it felt something. A cold iron grip, she looked up and saw it was the courier's hand grabbing her with a "you tried" look on his face.

Simultaneously, a gust of wind came in from the west to the east, and took off the courier's baseball hat he had on. Fern's fast reflexes quickly caught the hat with her other hand, then she put it on for the moment. "Thanks." said Fern after she had been pulled up the ridge, she offered the courier's hat. The courier took a moment from dusting his long leather trench coat off, saw him with it and thought that he would look better with it. "Keep it." He said. "You sure?" Fern replied. The courier nodded with a smile. He pointed at the overlook of the city and said, "I could gather some intel from there with my monocular."

As they began to approach the overlook, Fern asked, "What intel?" He began to explain the plan. "First of all, to maybe see why they raided the place. Secondly, to see if there are any hostages, or survivors," Fern cringed on the inside at the thought of Mr. Nash and his wife at gunpoint, "and you could benefit from it too, you look like you could use a rest." He implied. Rest, Fern hadn't thought of that concept every since she ran from Primm. She didn't even look at Primm, she was so physically drained. She sat up against a rock, looked at the night sky, and just before she fell asleep, the courier asked, "Hey kid, which casino do you think is used more?" "Viccki and Vance." She muttered back. "Hmmm." Said the courier.

As Fern began to doze off, she dreamt of having a picnic with her parents in the lush green fields of grass, whatever the hell that was like, with rolling hills in the background. Then she heard gunshots come from the bottom of the hill that she was on top of with her parents. Her dad stood up and ran down the hill to see what was going on. Fern called for him to come back, but she guessed he didn't hear her. Then the sky slowly began to turn a blood red, the tree above her withered and died, the grass turned to sand, and a formation of clouds formed what to seem to be a tornado about to touch down, but with hole coming out the bottom of it. A giant hand slowly emerged from the hole and grabbed Fern's mother and pulled her away from Fern. She wanted to move so bad to save her, but she couldn't move at all for some reason. Then another hand came from the cloud formation, for her. She tried to scream for help, but not a word could come from her mouth. But suddenly she felt something from behind, tugging. She jolted a little when she awoke, but her nerves calmed when she saw a friendly face.

It was the courier shaking her awake, and when she did, he gave a warm smile and said, "Hey kid, you were having a nightmare. Sorry to wake you from your beauty sleep, but it seems we have a 'friend' waiting to 'take' us into Primm." He said those two words, friend and take, with slight displeasure, Fern thought. Fern check her surroundings, she noted mentally that the moon had changed positions, and their "friend" was a NCR trooper. The NCR, Fern had completely forgot about the NCR, and how they could help them save Primm. She wondered why the courier didn't mentioned the NCR earlier. The courier gave her a "don't worry, we're safe" look, smiled and asked the soldier "And what was your name again, pal?" "I'm Private Johnson of the NCR army, fifth battalion, first company. I'm here escort you to the NCR base in Primm" Replied the soldier. The courier and Fern exchanged smirks. "Come along, we don't have all night," said the soldier.

As they made their way down the slope to the road and started towards the NCR base, Fern whispered to the courier, "So how long was I out?" "About two hours, I wasn't counting." He quietly replied. "How did he find out where you were?" She asked. "Probably, the lights from the front of the casino reflected off my monocul-," He stopped mid-sentence. " The front of the casino? You left me!?" Fern said angrily, but quietly. "I was gone for twenty minutes, I promise. I was on my way back to you, but I was stopped by 'this asshole'," He defensively whispered, "I shouldn't have done that, I'm sorry." Fern calmed down and said, " I forgive you, but please, don't do that again." She said as they came closer to Primm's NCR camp. "Well, did you find out anything useful?" Fern asked. "They're a little organized I'll give them that, they have two guys taking turns patrolling around the Viccki and Vance casino. But I don't think that's the building they're inhabiting, I saw one of them on the roller coster tracks. So I went a little bit east, and fortunately found it is just those two bandits on the streets." The courier explained. "Okay, what does that tell us?" Fern asked. The courier said, "That if we're lucky, there are hostages in the Vickki and Vance casino," that filled Fern with a little hope, "but that could also mean that the bandits are posted in the that Buffalo casi-," "Bison." Fern corrected. "Whatever, the bandits are probably in there." The courier replied. "Maybe the NCR will help us." Fern said as they were passing the bridge on their left. "Yeah, totally." The courier said sarcastically. "Why did you say it like that?" Fern asked. "Because don't you think they would of done something about it by now?" He explained as they approached the tents in the camp. They were being escorted to the tent on the left, Fern was asked to stay outside after Lieutenant Hayes had a little talk with her friend.

There she was, alone, again. One of the soldier looked at Fern and said, "Hey kid, haven't I seen you before?" Yes was the answer she first thought of, she had probably been seen by many NCR troops. She hesitated to say that, and thought if the courier found out her true identity, he might fall in love with her. Her mind raced about it for a few seconds, so she said, "No, you must've mistaken me for someone else," as she pull the cap down and looked away from the trooper. "Oh sorry, I've only been here since a couple days ago." The trooper apologized.

Twenty minutes pasted, the courier politely stormed out of the tent, and headed around a ruined building. Fern snapped up to follow him and asked, "So, how did it g-, where did you get that rifle?" The courier replied "Oh yeah, I traded it for my shotgun, it has a night scope, awesome right? Never mind that, I told you they wouldn't help us." Fern looked down in disappointment and asked "What did they say?" "That they couldn't interfere with the convicts because Primm isn't under their jurisdiction," The courier answered mocking the lieutenant's monotone voice. "And even if they could, they don't have the supplies, and don't want to use any of their men. They also said that we shouldn't try and risk ourselves getting shot." Fern, head down, sighed and thought, "All of this for nothing." The courier put his hand Fern's shoulder, and asked quietly, "But do you what we say to that?" Fern looked up at the courier and shook her head no. "We say, FUCK THAT! C'mon follow me, I got a plan." Said the courier as he walked around the corner of the ruined building. A smile came across Fern's face.

After she followed the courier path, she immediately found him. He was peeking around another corner of the ruined building, looking towards the bridge. He looked at Fern and signaled her to him. As Fern silently approached the courier, he said to her, "Alright kid, luckily for us, the guard at his post is catching some z's. C'mon, let's get past that bridge." They easily sneaked past the sleeping guard, but before the courier was about eagerly traverse the bridge, he was stopped by Fern, grabbing onto his collar. She whisper, "Mines," she spotted the little red lights blinking, "we can't get past the bridge unless deactivate them." "Okay? Can we not just step over them?" The courier asked. "No," Fern began to explain, "Those are proximity mines, if you step to close, they explode. There is a way around that, the sensor modules in them are small, and can only detect rather large objects." "Why?" The courier asked. "Well I wouldn't want to waste a mine on a fly, You could throw a baseball at it and it wouldn't explode." She picked up some rocks off the ground and handed them the courier and said, "Here, take these and hit the black button the mines." "Aye, captain." Said the courier. Fern rolled her eyes as he began to deactivate the mines. As he finished the second one, the courier asked. "So how do you know about these?" "I read it in a manual that was laying around in the camp back there." Fern replied. "Oh," the courier said as he hit the third mine. "Okay we can move on now." The courier said as he to began walk past mines. The mines reactivated and started to beep, the courier flinched, then the mines were off again. He looked back at Fern, who had something in her hands. Fern snickered and said, "Oh, this little thing? I forgot to mention the guard had a remote activator," the courier calmed down and grabbed where his heart was to make sure it didn't jump out of his chest. "That was for leaving me alone earlier." Fern said playfully. "We might be able to use these," the courier thought himself as he was walking and picking them up.

They crossed the bridge and started walking up the road towards the "T" crossing ahead of them, when suddenly the two of them heard bullets fly by their heads. They took cover behind an old rusty in the middle of the street. "Right, the guards." Said the courier. The guards were further up the road towards the left in front of the casino entrance, one of them was behind a pillar, the other was around the corner. The courier quickly saw that there was a vantage point for him to take both of them to right in a building. He turned to Fern and said, "alright Fern, you know what cover fire is?" She shook her head no. "Ugh, just shooting at them, but don't look at them, okay?" Said the courier. She gave him a thumbs up. The courier sprinted to the building and went up the stairs as Fern unloaded her clip from her pistol in the raiders' direction. When the courier reached the vantage point, he said, "good job, kid." One of Fern's bullets hit the bandit hiding behind the pillar in the knee, incapacitating him. They other bandit was his target now, it only took one shot from his rifle to reach the bandit's heart. "Kill shot," said the courier. The bandit hit the wall and slid down. He had a hockey mask on, but you could see his eyes staring into nothingness.

The other was still recovering from the shot to the knee, then he saw a figure coming towards him. He crawled to his handgun that was near a fire burning in a barrel, but it was kicked from him. He looked back and could make out the face of the figure from the light of the fire, and yelled, "I remember you kid! You should be dead!" Fern fired two shots in the head with a pause in between and said with an underlying angry expression, "Well then you should killed me when you had the chance." The courier carefully approached Fern and asked, "Why did you fire two shots?" Fern turned around and said, "after hearing what happened to you, I not taking any chances." The courier put his hand on her shoulder. "You didn't have to kill him, Fern. Are you okay?" He asked. "I'm fine, it's just that was the first time killed someone. I guess my feelings came over me, I just I don't-," she began to sniffle. The courier hugged her and said, "don't cry I know, I'm sorry." "Get it together," Fern thought to herself. She pulled away, and said, "C'mon, let's see who is in the casino." "There you are." The courier said with a smile.

Fern peeked into the casino and saw mostly everyone that was there before she left. Although they didn't look like they were being held hostage, they were playing cards, roulette, and having a good time as usual. "Everyone's in there and they seem fine, let's go in," said Fern. "You go on in, I've got to take care of the bodies. Find out what you can, and meet me out here when you're done, okay?" Said the courier. "On it," Fern replied. When she walked through the door, she heard, "Fernanda! Thank god you're alive, I was so worried, what are you doing here?" It was Mr. Nash, who immediately embraced her as she walked into the casino. "I found someone who can help us, what's happened so far?" Fern asked. "Well as you can see, they rounded us up in here ever since you left. Also, they had killed the sheriff and his wife, and are holding Deputy Beagle in the Bison Steve Casino. Other than that, everyone else is holding up pretty good." Mr. Nash explained. "I'm sorry I took so long," Fern said. Mr. Nash laughed and said, "it's okay Fernanda, as long as you're safe I don't have a worry in the world." "I've got to get to my friend, stay in here for me okay?" Fern said, as she walked out the door.

She looked left and saw the bodies were gone. Then she felt a tap on her shoulder, turned around and saw the masked bandit and he yelled, "Boooga Booga Booga!" "Nice try," Fern said. The courier pulled the mask off and said, "Seriously, nothing?" The courier had the bandit's clothes on, but with the jacket zipped up to hide the bullet hole. "Why do you have that on?" " It's a disguise, I'm going to sneak in and find out how many of them are in there, what did you find out?" The courier asked as he put the mask back on. "The sheriff's died, and they got deputy in there," she said and pointed to the Steve Bison casino. "Well, looks like we don't need to bring them in for shooting the deputy. Alright, stay inside, I'll have the deputy back before you know it." The courier said. "Be safe," Fern said.

The courier calmly walked through the door of the Bison Steve casino. The lobby was dimly lit, he could use that to his advantage. He walked through the lobby with nobody in there, as he entered the next room he went past two bandits, he knew the disguise worked. Then one of them in front of him walked up and asked, " i heard gunshots, what's going on out there? Why are you are in here?" "Oh, we were just trying to scare the hostages, I came in for something to sip on." "Oh okay, we got some drinks in the fridge where that sneaky little deputy is." The convict replied. "Cool," The courier said as he continued his espionage, after a few from him, he heard the convict behind him say, "Hey, wait a minute," The courier froze and turned around and saw the convict with a radio in his hands. "Take this, boss wants us to be a bit more organized." The courier felt relieved on the inside and said, "Yessir, will do." He entered large the casino room, with all the tables and seats piled up and moved, it looked like a little makeshift camp, he also noted the three raiders and their little arsenal. "Now to find that deputy," he said to himself.

He saw a door to his left and opened it, he saw that the deputy was behind a counter tied up. The courier closed the doors behind him, went to the fridge and grabbed on bottle of whiskey and said, "how ya doing jack?" The courier approached the deputy and whispered, "if you see anyone, act like you don't want me to take you outside, okay?" "What?" Deputy Beagle asked confused. "Alright, good." The courier said as he grabbed the deputy's collar and pulled him to his feet. "Who are you?" The deputy asked. "I'm the guy who getting you outta here," The courier answered, "Now, shut up and do what I told you." To avoid any attention from the raiders in the casino room, the courier opened the door to his right which lead to a hallway. At the end of the hallway, was a bandit walking towards them, he asked, "What are you doing?" "Boss wants me to rough him up to show the hostages that we mean business." The courier answered. "Alright whatever, be sure not to kill him, I don't want him running cold." The bandit requested. "I'll keep that in mind when I'm bloodying his face," the courier replied, then punched the deputy in the stomach to shut him up from whining. They continued back to the lobby when the courier apologized for the punch.

They were outside of the casino now, the courier cut off the bondage on the deputy. "Thanks, my hands were about to be numb," said the deputy. "Can you still fight?" The courier asked. "Maybe, after a minute and a shot of that whiskey you got there," Deputy Beagle answered. The courier laughed and said, "Yeah, you take that and go on ahead into the Vickki and Vance casino, I'll be there in a minute." The deputy walked through the door, and was greeted with a hug from Fern, who said, "Beagle, you're okay!" "I'm glad to see you're well too Fern." He replied. "How did you get out?" Mr. Nash asked. "The guy with the mask saved me." Beagle replied. Mr. Nash looked at him with confusion and asked, "Who?" "Me." The courier walked in, with the mask still on, but with his normal attire. He revealed his face by taking off the mask. "Well, speak of the devil," Fern said, "So what's the plan?" He smiled and said, "You still got that remote activator?" Fern jumped and handed it to him, "this is going to be awesome." Said the courier.

The moon was now high in the sky, and inside the Bison Steve casino, one of the bandits asked another, "When do you think that guard is going to be back with that cute deputy?" "Can you not go fucking one minute without opening your stupid fucking mouth?" The other asked agitatedly. "Geez, I was just asking." The bandit declared. They heard static from the radio, and then someone yelling under gunfire, "Everybody, we need help out here! They got guns, they're retaliating! Help!" Now the leader was on the radio, "alright everyone, grab your guns, and stack up at the front door." All the bandits quickly raced towards the front, eager to get some action.

The point man opened the door to see one of their own on his stomach near the side of a old ruined car in front of the casino. The leader order the point man to go check to check on him. As he checked his fellow raider, he saw he had the radio in his hands. The point man flipped him over towards car to see that his head had bullet holes, what he didn't notice was three objects strapped to his chest. "Now," said the courier. Fern, behind him, pressed the button to activate the mines on the bandit's chest, the lights started to beep. The leader said saw the lights begin to blink and said, "MOVE!" Four of the bandits flew a good few feet from the explosion, including the point man, who hit the wall of casino five feet above the doors. The three left were still recovering from the explosion. They started to spray randomly into the air, but quickly dropped from the storm of bullets that were sent their way. After the smoke cleared, the courier, Fern, and Deputy Beagle walked over the bodies, making sure that they were dead. "I think it's safe to say we won." Said the courier. "Primm is still without law, it needs a sheriff." Beagle pointed out. "I think I have a solution to that." Fern said.

Back in the Vikki and Vance casino, the courier was talking to Mr. Nash while Fern and Beagle were working on a robot. "So I have this delivery order for the Mojave Express," the courier said as he handed the letter to Mr. Nash, "I was wondering if you could tell me something about it." "I can only tell you that you were delivering an over-sized platinum chip," He handed it back to the courier and said, "but what I can tell you is that a cowboy robot came to me the other day, and ordered six couriers to deliver six different packages in six different directions. The last guy I hired cancelled after he saw your name on the list, sounded like you two had a bit of history between each other." "My name, where is the list?" The courier asked with eagerness. "You might have to get my employee to help you run that up on the computer." He answered and pointed to Fern. "Ta-da! I present to you the new and improved Primm Slim, now the sheriff and historian of Primm!" Fern said with the applause of everyone in the casino. After everyone was done clapping, the courier approached Fern and asked, "a robot for a sheriff? Don't they run off logic and such?" "Don't worry, Beagle helped me with that part. We gave him better judgment program, so everything isn't so black and white to him." Fern explained. "And that wouldn't be possible, if you hadn't saved me from those bandits. Thank you, by the way." Beagle added. "I think I'll take some of that whiskey by now." The courier said. He and Beagle laughed. "I'll get some shot glasses." Beagle said. It was the courier and Fern now, "Hey, can you run this delivery order at a computer. It might tell us something." The courier asked Fern. "I promised I would." Fern replied.

Across the street from the street inside the Mojave Express, the courier was examining the robot that was on the counter, while Fern was typing away on a computer. "Here we go," said Fern, "couriers six; Jackson Q. Voltro. You're twenty-four years old, six feet five inches tall, hazel eyes, black hair, and you've a pending delivery for one platinum chip." "That's everything?" The courier asked. "That's right, Mr. Voltro." Fern answered with a smile. "Thanks kid, I really appreciate it. You know what, just call me 'Q'." Said Q, the courier. "Can I ask you something, Q?" Fern asked as they walked out the door. "Sure, what is it?" Q replied. "Can I help you make that delivery?" Fern asked. Q laughed, and said, "Let me sleep on it, okay?" Fern gave a little smile at that. "Come everyone's waiting for us at the casino." He said as he started towards the Vikki and Vance casino. There she was again, looking at the courier heading off somewhere. "Wait for me!" Fern said as she caught up to Q.


End file.
